El Salvador, a Bitcoin Adopter, on Alert: “Quantum Risk is Growing”

Metaverse Planet

El Salvador has decided to divide its digital wallets to protect its Bitcoin reserves from the “quantum threat.”

The government of El Salvador has decided to split its large Bitcoin reserves into multiple digital wallets to protect them from potential quantum attacks. The Central American country adopted Bitcoin as its official currency in 2021 and currently holds approximately 30 billion Turkish Liras’ worth of Bitcoin.

The country’s National Bitcoin Office announced that this move is a “strategic initiative to enhance the security and long-term storage of Bitcoin reserves.”

“QUANTUM DOOMSDAY IS APPROACHING”

The statement reminded that quantum computers could theoretically break public-key private-key encryption thanks to the Shor algorithm. This encryption is not only the foundation of Bitcoin but also of banking, email, and communication systems. There are concerns that future quantum devices could seize the private keys of Bitcoin systems and reroute funds before a transaction is confirmed.

A statement from the Office said, “Dividing the funds into smaller amounts minimizes the impact of a potential quantum attack.”

6 MILLION BITCOIN AT RISK

The quantum computing company Project Eleven estimates that approximately 6 million Bitcoin could be at risk from such attacks in the future.

However, some figures in the crypto sector believe the threat is exaggerated. There are those who argue that the problem can be solved with software-based measures.

Businessman Michael Saylor, whose company holds 629,000 Bitcoin, told CNBC:

“The solution is a hardware and software update. Just as Microsoft, Google, or the U.S. government performs updates, we will update the Bitcoin software. Bitcoin is the hardest thing to hack in the universe; communication and banking systems are many times weaker than it is.”

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